Cuneiform Receipt from King Nebuchadnezzar's Court
Confirms Detail of Old Testament Book of Jeremiahby Rich Deem

Introduction

Bible: History or Fiction?

Does the Bible contain real history or is it just made-up fiction? A
recent discovery of a sixth century BC cuneiform tablet goes a long way to
confirm the accuracy of biblical narrative accounts.

Rich Deem

Skeptics often claim that Old Testament writers made up the names of rulers and leaders
with whom the Israelites reportedly interacted with. However, the
recent discovery of a cuneiform tablet dated to 595 BC confirms one of the
minor details about an obscure official from the court of King
Nebuchadnezzar II, mentioned in
the Old Testament book of Jeremiah.1

New evidence

Michael Jursa, associate professor at the University of Vienna,
discovered the Assyrian cuneiform tablet in the British Museum's great
Arched Room, which houses 130,000 such tablets. The small tablet, is a bill of receipt acknowledging Nabu-sharrussu-ukin's payment of 0.75 kg of gold to a temple in Babylon.

The full translation of the tablet reads:

1.5 minas
of gold, the property of Nabu-sharrussu-ukin, the chief eunuch, which he
sent via Arad-Banitu the eunuch to [the temple] Esangila: Arad-Banitu has
delivered to Esangila. In the presence of Bel-usat, son of Alpaya, the
royal bodyguard, [and of] Nadin, son of Marduk-zer-ibni. Month XI, day 18,
year 10 [of] Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon.2

Professor Jursa noted that
chapter 39 of the Book of Jeremiah contained the same name - Nebo-Sarsekim,
although it was spelled differently. According to Jeremiah's account, Nebo-Sarsekim
was Nebuchadnezzar's "chief officer" and was with him at the siege of
Jerusalem in 587 BC, 8 years after he had provided the cuneiform receipt.

Conclusion

The discovery of a cuneiform tablet that confirms the existence of a
once-mentioned minor official in the Old Testament book of Jeremiah is somewhat
of a shock to Bible skeptics. Previous to this discovery, the only confirmed
biblical figures were well-known kings. Therefore, this discovery goes a long
way to confirm the accuracy of biblical historical accounts.

References

This is how Jerusalem was taken: In the ninth year of
Zedekiah king of Judah, in the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon
marched against Jerusalem with his whole army and laid siege to it. 2 And on
the ninth day of the fourth month of Zedekiah's eleventh year, the city wall
was broken through. Then all the officials of the king of Babylon came and
took seats in the Middle Gate: Nergal-Sharezer of Samgar,
Nebo-Sarsekim a chief officer,
Nergal-Sharezer a high official and all the other officials of the king of
Babylon. (Jeremiah 39:3)